Ahhh, the early mid-rounds. This is where you can really start zagging when owners want you to zig, or zig when they wanna zag, or just be a total Zags homer and draft Adam Morrison for the hell of it! Stupid Jordan picks…

So here we start vaulting into some of the bolder calls, where hopefully you don’t say “stupid JB picks”… I finally start going an island with a few calls, particularly some saucy PF-types. Choo choo! “Know what I’m SAYIN’!!!” Uh oh, I am starting to go delirious with the rankings already… I feel like Russell Crowe in that forest outhouse with magazine clippings everywhere. “What did Oladipo say in Slam Magazine about playing with Westbrook?!” Enough foreplay! You can check out the Top-10 and Top-25 though some clickage right there, and here’s the Top 50 for the 2016-17 Fantasy Basketball Season:

I ranked Bledsoe huge last year – ranking him 18 with an ADP in the high-20s – and everything was going so, so well… Career-highs in virtually all categories, steals to 2.0, hitting 3s, it was all so magical at a 24th mark in per-game stats,,. Then it fell apart with another knee issue, giving E Bled only 43 games or fewer in 2 of the last 3 seasons. Fortunately he got to 81 games in the sandwich 2014-15 season, so there’s hope he can stay healthy. He opted for the meniscus surgery that takes longer to heal in order to stay at his peak level, and we all love that decision for the emerging superstar as well. A big reason I liked him so much last year was the apparent PG dropoff; this year PG is a little more evenly spread through the early rounds, so I won’t feel the pressure to nab him earlier.

Godzilla angry! Back-to-back games-played risks to open the 26-50 range… Starting to feel less comfortable with my ranks already!

Looking at Buckets’ stats, it doesn’t initially look like much changed until you notice he played 2 less minutes a game last year. Thanks for running him into the ground at 38:40 MPG for two seasons, Tibby Tibs! Scoring per-minute went well up, FT up a smidge, and the biggie is the AST went to 4.8. Unfortunately, he now has to play along usage-whores Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo. So those dimes will likely fall, and the steals have very marginally trended down the past 3 seasons. Along with playing 67 games or under the last 3 years, there’s risk, but I have a feeling we get a pretty good year yet again and I’m crossing my fingers for 75 games.

I really like the player too, but I still can’t wrap my head around how playing in OKC is any better than Orlando. Well, there is the change of something… No more SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILES! But that would be the case either way… Anywho, you trade an offensively inept Elfrid Payton to an absolute ballhog in Russell Westbrook, you get a comparable swap of low-post touches of Nikola Vucevic to Enes Kanter (who will get a tonnnnn of shots now), then a whole lot of blah is about the same for both teams. How is playing combo G next to Westbrook (the biggest change) any better?

I continue to maintain RainbOladipo’s 3-ball is a work in progress (34.8% last year, which is a career-high I guess, WOOOOO!), he was MUCH less aggressive getting to the stripe (some concussion concerns last year, again WOOOOO!), and his PPG went down a smidge on a pretty inept offensive team. The change in systems will help, but I still sadly compare these OKC combo G to a rich man’s version of the Suns, and Westbrook is E Bled and Oladipo is more Knight. Less 3s of course, and Oladipo is no question a better player, but he’s going to be the second fiddle. All of this said, I still think I’d be ecstatic to get him within the top-30, but I’m not quite paying a 19-20 ADP if he’s ranked that high.

Uncle Drew getting back in our good graces! After injury concerns pushed his debut back to December 20th, we also got minutes-limits and an easing in for the Ol’ Uncle (who actually isn’t that old at all, despite looking Oden-ish, but ya know)… Then post-ASB we saw the minutes go up, the 3PT% dramatically improve as he got his legs under him, more FTA, etc. etc. He also stayed strong through the Playoffs, made the biggest Finals shot, and is playing for Team USA. Suffice to say, I think he’s healthy. You’re my boy, Uncle Drew!

Like his new compadre in The Alamo there, Senor Pau, Aldridge has a game that I think could last for a longgggg time in the NBA. They got yet another ageless big like Duncan! Aldridge always seems to get it done stats-wise despite scoring/rebounding being the only highlights in his line, as he came in at 26th in per-game last year. But it hopped up all the way to 9th, yes NINTH, over the final 31 games from Feb 1st on. It took some growing pains before LA settled in, but we got a career-high FG% and a career-low in TO in that great Spurs system. The knocks that keep me from being giddier is that Pau addition, who is an upgrade over the final Duncan year last season, and Aldridge got to only 74 games played in the Spurs DNP fest at only 30:33 MPG, his lowest since his rookie year. I’d absolutely love him in my KAT-Kemba-Aldridge build though, I might have weeks without a single TO!

Despite the pundits saying Boston can’t win without a better-sized PG, IT2/3 is awesome and his fantasy returns were huge in 15-16. The 37th overall finish was a little annoyingly-low, but he is docked for not getting rebounds and having a bad FG%, both things that make him an UNBELIEVABLE fit after one of the punt FT bigs in the top-25. Everything else is what you’d expect from IT2/3 playing his peak-level ball, with a pretty 6.2:2.7 AST:TO in 15-16.

CHOOCHOO!!!!! The Dieng Train is off the rails! I’m again going to parrot a lot of the stuff I said in my Way Too Early Top 50: through the first 13 games last year, he played only 19 MPG. Thanks a lot for the cockblocking, KG! Through games 14-82 – yes he played all 82 games! – Gorgui played over 28:30 MPG for a 10.8/7.5/2.0/1.1/1.2 line with 53.9% from the field and 82.6 FT%! And that was STILL after only starting 39 of those 69 games. Over that stretch, his numbers were good for 24th in overall value! Then just for the icing on the cake, the Wolves bring in Tibby Tibs, who runs his starters harder than Russian Olympic coaches. If you hop that 28:30 MPG to 35 MPG with a starting role every night, we might be CONSERVATIVE with this rank. Yes, the per-game ranks are a little bit metrics-whorish, but he could be Millsap-lite as a bedrock multi-cat PF, just without the treys. I’m seeing ranks where he’s wellllll outside the top-50. I can’t believe it. UNFORGIVABLE! Now get me some waffle fries.

The Duchess scores a royally awesome 15-16! BBM has him at 30th overall in per-game last year, while being a mother to the Royal Heirs. Truly epic season for Her Majesty.

The biggest two changes other than the obvious hike in scoring was the AST went way up as did the FTA. LOVE IT! And I was pleasantly surprised to see the AST went UP post-ASB as Giannis became the point-forward, initially thinking they would have trended down. Nothing much else to say other than he had that weird shooting lull mid-season and I remember in the comments we had some concerns his numbers were WAYYY lower with Kidd as the coach, but his strong finish alleviated any of that.

Miss any of the premiere bigs in that 2nd-round big man run? No problem! Monsieur Elbow can be your backup plan!

To say Gobert’s 15-16 – especially after our rank of him – was a disappointment would be an understatement. You can’t really compare year-to-year stats since he wasn’t a starter in 14-15, but as a starter that season (37 games) to 15-16 we saw a drop of 1.5 Pts, 1.4 Reb, 0.6 Blk, 0.3 Stl, and drops in both FG/FT%. Lord give me strength! But he came into last year sluggish complaining of fatigue after playing Summer FIBA ball, then tore his knee mid-season, surprisingly recovering pretty quick for a big and was effective enough. I’m giving a loud audible sigh seeing him play in the Olympics, but hopefully his conditioning is more used to the grind and we get that 12/12 3 block guy we hope for.

As I’m writing these ranks, I’m kicking myself for not finishing all the Team Previews first. Through auditing the New York Super Knicks (hey, it’s a better name than “the Poppycockers” like I used to call them!), I realized Melo’s dimes climbed to a career-best 4.2 last year, and they bring in the assist-anemic Derrick Rose to lead the offense. As I mentioned in the preview, I could see his dimes being a surprising 5+. He’s still gonna score a ton, nab a few REB, have a good FT volume, and be pretty blah defensively. With the dimes and scoring, it’s going to come out as a pretty good player that the fantasy community might be over-sour on. There is the risk in his knees as well, which keep me from being any more interested.

Man, K-Love has been getting more scrutiny than K-Federline, amiright?! Dude comes over as a superstar that we all KNEW had to play a third wheel role, we KNEW he has injury issues, and people act like he’s a leper on the team for stepping into his assumed role. Of course, all is fine now that they won the Finals…

It wasn’t huge, but Love finished 39th in per-game, but most importantly he played 77 games giving him 75+ in 3 straight years. He was actually a good bit better in per-minute stats last year than in 14-15 that gets masked in a 2+ MPG reduction if you look at the pure numbers. Sure, the Cavs might keep Love at the 31:30 range than going over 33 again, but I just like that there wasn’t really a decline in skill set. Rebounds, points, low-TO… It’s not a sexy pick in the least, but it’ll work.

Jrue is muchhhhhh sexier! Especially since he’s gonna wear rec specs on the court, just like yours truly!

The per-game numbers are obviously a little meh, but the layman might forget how much he was eased in giving him only a 62nd per-game rank. And you really don’t have to omit much to see a pretty epic line, as his last 36 games (over half his season) from Jan 10th on he went 19.8/3.1/3.7/7.3/1.6/0.3 with 2.8 TO, 1.4 treys, and 89% FT at 3.1-3.5. He hops up to 40th from that point on, with some flukes ahead of him like 1-game-played Jodie Meeks and Dahntay Jones. Jrue also played only 31.3 MPG in that span, so the reigns should come completely off. There’s still some of that injury concern lingering (get the Pels a new medical staff, or else I’ll get my staff for em!), but he’s the last interesting stud PG available which makes him worth that little extra premium given the risk.

Gulp. And no, I didn’t just drink a Surge. Remember those?! But I already feel a little iffy moving him to 38 after not having him top-50 in my Way Too Early. About as iffy as I felt after 70 grams of sugar in a can of soda!

The team change is great, and Frankie V said the Magic are going to use him a lot more offensively. Next to Bismack Biyombo? Duh! But there’s still Nikola Vucevic around, and he ain’t too pleased with the Biz of the game.

To say Ibaka’s 15-16 was merely disappointing might have some readers throw things at their computer. And we want you to have your computer working, we want you to keep reading! Despite having stretches where he was legit tough to own, he wrapped a 61st overall year. The metrics-whoreness was a part of that, but the blocks fell to 1.9 – a decline in that cat for 5 straight seasons now – the FG% stayed the same as 14-15 despite shooting less treys, and the Pts/Rebs dropped. Now on Orlando, without the USG hogs he played alongside in OKC, he should really have an opportunity to shine. Upside in more offensive touches and more treys keep him interesting, but anyone pushing for him much higher than here I think is overly optimistic. The blocks had been falling due to the emergence of Steven Adams on D, and Ibaka should conceivably share *some* time with Bismack you’d assume… So I think the Boards-N-Blocks maintain at about their 15-16 level, and I could even see a decline to 1.5ish BLK if Vuc is moved and he runs most of his minutes next to Biz.

Mmmmmm, I wanna like Favors more than Ibaka and move him up a few more, but dat back do!

I love D-Fave’s offensive game. He continues to get better and better, shoot well over 50%, and has slowly but surely improved the freebies. He doesn’t turn it over either, and get a steal per for a big. But the blocks that looked so special off the bench early in his career didn’t really translate as a starter, and they fell a good bit last year. 1.5 BLK is “nice”, but not “SKEET SKEET!”. Then to the concerns on his health: he hasn’t played 75 games the past three years, only 62 last year due to lingering back spasms, and his back has cost him games two years in a row now. It’s just a little too much risk for me to go higher, with not the biggest reward either.

I don’t know how the ADP is gonna look, but I have a feeling Parsons is gonna end up being one of my guys this year. The injury concern is still there after back-to-back season-ending knee surgeries, but all reports are positive, and I feel like Memphis is a pretty well-run organization. I think they have faith in the repairs and I’m gonna stay bullish.

Like Jrue, Parsons is another guy you can’t take too much stock of season-long stats, as he was eased in off that first knee repair. After somewhat struggling, CP25 went 19.0/5.9/3.1/1.1/0.3 with an unreal 2.6 treys on 51.9% overall FG shooting in his last 26 games. Only 1.7 TO too! That run was good for 19th in per-game from Jan 20th on. And you have to imagine his USG is going to stay sky-high in Memphis, who sorely needed a playmaker on the wing. I’ll be pumped if I can snag Parsons as MY playmaker wing in the 4th rounds.

Oopsie Daze! Yeah, my CJ bias didn’t go so hot last year… Dude got a shot with a wide open opportunity, and he made the most of it. We’re talking a $100 mil opportunity he seized!

Shooting a career high was absurd, 3PT% a career best, a massive correction to his AST:TO to 4.3:2.5, he made his FT… Not much to dislike. It all came out to a 44th overall season in per-game, but I don’t really know if there’s much higher to go. It’s still Lillard’s team, and his D stats I don’t see changing much, but if he can get to 1.5+ steals and maintain everything else, it’ll be a huge season. It also helps the Blazers still have a pretty inept offense besides the backcourt.

The Boston Clam Crowder was a wholesome meal last year, that’s for sure!

An absolutely phenomenal year for a guy the Mavs just gave away, Crowder finished 32nd last season in per-game sats, with a poor-man’s Kawhi Leonard multi-cat wing line. The %s, the treys, the 1.1 TO, the sexy, SEXY 1.7 steals. I can’t think of any reason he can’t duplicate what he did in 15-16. He’d make a great wing pick in a Lillard build for the steals. Short-n sweet-blurb & advice right there!

Old. Spurs. Those two words together spell DOOOOOOM! President Snow doesn’t like em young… “Sorry J-Law, but I’m more into that Little Duck!” But Pop WILL like a guy that can still put up 16+ PPG and 2 blocks, even in his age-79 season. The blocks these past two years from Chicago have been ABSURD, going 1.9 and 2.0 in 14-15 and 15-16. 11+ boards as well. Nutso. And even at an 18th per-game value, there’s just no way anyone could have the confidence to go higher than this rank. You could make the argument, but are you CONFIDENT? Do you feel lucky, PUNK?! I certainly don’t, as we could easily see multiple fantasy-playoff DNPs and I think his minutes fall under 30.

Be careful, don’t tell Klay about his falling fantasy stock! He ain’t sacrificing SHIT! (Why I love being able to write for an indie blog, I ain’t gotta sensor SHIT!)

Welllllll, Klay, let me sit you down and tell you something. You’re playing next to a unanimous MVP and possibly legendary player, and a second guy who is probably the second best player over the past decade. You’re gonna get 15+ shots in only maybe in 1/3 of Warriors games. It’s just that simple. Then on top of the O dropping, he fell down in Ast/Stl/Blk in 15-16 while playing over a MPG more. He’s going from Splash Brother to Splash Annoying Nephew. ADPs will still have him too high, methinks.

I want to trust the Gordon’s Fisherman so much more, but I just CAN’T! Selling me this rotten fish, I just can’t do it!

It was a pretty rough season after showing some signs of improvement in 14-15, but last year saw the FG% go down, a third straight season of a dropping AST rate, and a third straight season of steals and blocks dropping. Sure he scored “a smidge” more, but that was aided by playing over a minute-and-a-half more. He’s a good player, and I’m glad the TO are going down, but now the Jazz have their most competent PG in a while in George Hill, and even though he isn’t exactly Rajon Rondo out there, I still think Hayward is going to struggle to get back to 4+ dimes. You gotta love the FT% and volume, but I’m struggling for the love in the other cats.

Rubio played 76 games after all the kankles, finished top-50 like I ranked him, and did I get any thanks?! Well, not from you readers in Razzball Nation, but Ricky gave me a happy ending! Whoa… Anyway, while Kris Dunn indeed looks like he’s going to be a very good NBA player, the Wolves still haven’t dumped Ricky and he should play his normal 30+ MPG role. Time will tell if Tibby Tibs pushes him to 35 minutes, or runs a pretty evenly-spread 3-guard rotation. With history on my side, I can say there’s optimism for the former. Everyone loves to bash poor Ricky’s jumper, but when you take 7.7 shots per game, the % doesn’t hurt, and especially feels better with the 8.6:2.5 AST:TO and 2.1 steals. He’s of course a fit in only the right builds, but he fits sooooooo nice. I would know 🙂

Aighhhhht, let’s start drumming up the hype machine! It’s already starting to get out of control thanks to Rotoworld, then thanks to the Olympics and N-Joke nutting on the USA team. “Augustus, save some for later!” That’s what I would yell to Jokic if I was in Rio…

A lot of things blow me away about Jokic… Despite playing only 21.39 MPG – yes UNDER 22 minutes – he came out at 66th in per-game stats. Then BBMonster has an awesome feature – per-36 stats. Sitting down for this? Jokic came out to 13th in the ENTIRE NBA in per-game stats in his rookie season. That’s crazypants! 21:39 MPG – 10.0/7.0/2.4/1.0/0.6 with 0.4 treys shooting 51.2% from the field. Dumb numbers. I don’t ever remember them screaming off the page like that during last season. Good job barely playing him, Mike Malone!

There’s been more and more traction to Jokic and Nurk playing together, and even though Faried might start, his minutes are going to be the backup variety with Jokic starting at the 5. Ain’t no Jokic indeed!

Another scoring wing (although Gay is kinda stretch-4ish, but you catch my drift), Gay is also another unhappy Kings player stuck in their mess of an organization. Gotta love his quotes when asked about his new Kings teammates. “Honestly, I haven’t paid attention . I don’t even know who our new players are to be honest with you.” HAH!

Despite playing with complete strangers this upcoming season, I think Gay bounces back a bit from his lackluster 15-16 campaign, particularly in the drop from 3.7 to 1.7 dimes. Now with Rondo gone, I think they hop back to 3ish. And even though the real-life NBA metrics hate him, he still came in at 46th in per-game last year in a down year. He’s like an even boring-er version of Love. Gay Love is pretty boring this year…

One word. Zapato. Wait, I think that means shoe. What’s foot? La mano I think is hand… Can you tell I write these stream of conscious style?!

He couldn’t play in this year’s Olympics, on June 5th he said he couldn’t even run, and this navicular bone or whatever is apparently a tricky break to recover from, especially for big men. A lot of further updates just keep giving me the heebie jeebies. And that’s really all it comes down to – yes his Boards-N-Blocks were at or near career-lows in 15-16, but the rest of the package is about the same. The risk is worth it here, but any higher and I think you could be really disappointed by b2b DNPs and minutes limits.

After a horrific 14-15, Batum bounced back from wrist issues that plagued that season for a 14.9/6.1/5.8 15-16 season with 2 treys. The bugaboo was the career-high 2.9 TO… The per-game value was only 59th, but the TO and FG% weighed that down a tad. With Jeremy Lin now gone, the Hornets have an absolute zero at wing playmaking besides Frenchy, so I think we see even more dimes, but likely 3ish TO again. He makes a phenomenal pick with DeMarcus Cousins, PG and a FT-punt big though in the 4th round – TO punt, Batum’s meh scoring is accounted for; Frenchy works well in that build.

There ya go, Razzball Nation! Rankings are moving full-steam ahead! I hope to get through 75 by the end of this week and top-100 next Monday. Wish me luck, and don’t let Jennifer Conley give me the drugs! I need Ed Harris to help me think I’m breaking war codes!

Thanks- you da real mvp.
I feel like a junkie waiting for these to drop
Do BBMonster have projections out yet? I might pay for a sub now rather than later but if they do I might put together a spreadsheet with different punt rankings

@JB Gilpin:
I think BB Monster has a tool where you can input your own stat projections, that’d be awesome for punt strategies with your own ranks. I know Kyle Mckeown (?) had his own super technical spreadsheet over at DFBP website that allowed you to input punt preferences, not sure how to work the formulae out on that.
Keep the gold coming, love your work.
*request if i may- when you end up putting together to one article with all rankings, stats and a brief comment- could you include age with the name, position and team? Would help with keeper/dynasty.

@Richo: Hmmm interesting, I’ll have to check it out, see if we can incorporate a punt strategy with our numbers.

Cool idea! let me mull it around and see if it can fit, if anything we can def put it on the sortable spreadsheet by Slim’s projections,and then you could sort by age, but I’ll see if I can find a good fit on the main ranks too 🙂

@Wook: I could see being overly cautious when it’s said and done, but I really worry about his front office relationship and how it impacts minutes/possible trade at the deadline, which almost inevitably hurts all the better players if moved. Either way, there’s no way I see him repeating last year’s numbers

@Wook: @Jeremy: Yup, I have him 52. How can you guys not be worried?! His post D is always a question mark, they’ve been terrible, and they bring in two great big man D guys. Plus he’s publicly whining all offseason. Seems like some major front office issues and trade likely, I feel like he’s more Enes Kanter this year than Vuc from last year. Well, that’s a little harsh, but you get what I mean.

With Oladipo gone, Vucevic is arguably the only reliable scoring option on that team, unless you want to count forunier.

He has been a consistent top 30-35 ish player every year. If your argument is that he’s at risk for being traded then I would argue that I rather take that risk with a healthy player than to take a bigger risk in Marc gasol’s and parson’s health. Even if Vuv gets traded, he will still provide something versus 0 stat from an injured player.

If he doesn’t get traded, there’s no reason to think he won’t produce top 35 value again like he has been. Marc gasol was better than that in his best year (13-14) , but hard to believe that he will reproduce that again after this major injury, at least not this year. And Parsons at his best was a top 40 player (when he was on the rockets i think?). I will take Vucevic over these two in a heartbeat.

With that being said, I don’t think it’s right to put both Parsons and Gasol in front of Vucevic given all 3 players come with risk, with Vucevic having the smallerst risk. In reality though, I’ll most definitely avoid all 3 players unless they fall to me in the 60-70 range.

@Jeremy: I definitely want to count Fournier! And I think Ibaka has shown he can score at times, when needed. Not consistently, but I think he’ll be OK.

Yes – Vuc has been that good. I argue traded risk AND minutes risk since he’s not a good defender vs. now 2 GREAT defenders at big.

Thing is, you don’t get a 0 for injuries, you get replacement level. And these ranks being for 12 team H2H leagues, replacements/streaming are out there. In like a 20 team league, yes Vuc would move up.

Parsons was 19 during that stretch last year as mentioned above! And changing teams. But all 3 are within 10 spots for me, not like they’re egregiously far apart.

Then the biggie – how are you gonna slam those guys injury risks and not talk about Vucevic?! 57, 74, 65 for games played last 3 years. He’s a pretty major injury risk in his own right…

Ibaka is not a reliable scoring option. He has no post moves at all. All mid-range jump shots/3-pt and put backs.

Yes out of the three, Vuvevic is the weakest at defense, but I don’t think he’s atrocious like kevin love. Vuvevic should have no problem getting his usual mins cause he needs to be on the floor for the offense. I think it’s a little absurd to think that Bismack is gonna be the reason that Vuvevic goes under 30 mpg.

I would say that 26 games is a pretty small sample, I don’t doubt parson could even be a top 30 player, but top 20 is kinda crazy after yet another season-ending surgery. I would bet $100 that he won’t shoot 2.6 treys with 51% again.

Idk what happened in that 57 game season (since i don’t follow Vucevic religiously, who would?) , but playing 74 games the next year is a pass in my book. Then last year was a bone bruise issue I believe, which shouldn’t be a lingering issue and did not require season-ending surgery like the other two. I wouldn’t label him as a MAJOR injury risk. I would feel safer taking him over the other two.

Yes you do get replacements for them, (however only if it’s a season-ending injury again, what if it’s a b2b rest/re- aggregation/soreness that cause a few games here and there, we see players with knee soreness and forced to rest more often the last couple seasons.),
the replacements that you get most likely won’t be better than Vucevic. Every player has an injury risk since anything can happen in sports, but i’d still like to take the lowest risk.

To be fair, I understand your rank on parsons, it’s more Marc Gasol that I have a problem with, Like you stated, he couldn’t even run 2 months ago, idk whens the last time he had any basketball activity. I don’t really see how he’s ranked over Vuvevic. Parsons will take some of the usage and scoring so the upside is not that high, blocks went down last year to 1.5, only slightly better than Vucevic.

But like i said, I’m personally avoiding all 3 if possible. For example, if i have a choice, I would take Batum over parsons easily, there’s no need to take a risk even at 4th round. Losing a 4th round pick is still a pretty big deal.

@Jeremy: Ummm, I think you’re selling Ibaka a tad short, agree not much in the post, I think he has a sweet jumper though. While we both can agree Bismack bumping him is a little odd, we’re not the ones that told Bis he was going to start or give him that huge contract!

Hah, agree on those Parsons marks, it was just to show he good he was playing before going down.

Sure, Vuc isn’t a major risk to me either, but still is a risk. I think him and Parsons have about the same injury risk, and agree Gasol the most. I think it was Vuc’s shoulder that season…? Can’t remember either haha.

Ummm, well Batum had a few nicks and bruises too, I think Parsons has the upside. Interesting Marc G was your biggest qualm, I thought I was gonna be too low on him!

I think Ibaka definitely got a ton of open looks because of durant and westbrook. He won’t have that luxury anymore.

It’s weird that you think Vuc and parsons have the same injury risk, back to back season-ending knee surgeries are definitely a much bigger red flag for me.

I think Batum and parsons upside are about the same, like you mention, hornets lost both lin and lee.

Yep, love the discussion too! Nice rankings everywhere else tho. Keep up the good work, we will see if Jokic is gonna be the Terrence Jones this year haha Michael Malone refuses to play him big minutes is kinda worrisome for me.

@Jeremy: I kinda disagree, on any NBA team, there’s going to be open jumper looks at times. I think he may have had a little hesitation to try more than wide WIDE open shots.

True point on Parsons, my point in the above is the Grizz usually run a good ship, I trust their faith in that contract. I think Parsons has more upside than Batum, but both do have good upside in their own rights.

Thanks man! Yeah Jokic is going to have some crazy ranges. Don’t you put that Terrence Jones voodoo on him, don;t you dare!

@MAC: What’s up man?! Ricky is my boy! Mi amigo. Hah. Ummm, yeah I mean I have them back to back, it’s just all about risk. If these guys were more in the 70s, I would be more apt to go upside of Favors

@JB Gilpin: HAhahha I think I confused you again :(. The 5th keeper has to be either a rookie or a sophomore, so I guess you would replace Chowduh with Myles? Though I could just not keep a youngin’ and possibly draft a stud in the 5th? It all really depends on if Myles can put up 5th round value or not and at the same time, I don’t want to risk losing him after a rival of mine in the league dropped him when he wasn’t getting his opportunity to shine quite yet. He’s been sour ever since. Your final thoughts? haha

@v00dr00: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Your first comment with ESPN copy and paste said “1 can’t” I thought it said “I can’t” Stupid fonts haha.

Yup that’s exactly what I’d do, no more Clam Crowder and welcome to the squad Myles Turner! Well, 10 or 12 team league? Def holding in a 12er. 10er is close, but I like having Myles as a possible keeper again next yr

@DORIAN: Well, you’re definitely saying something I didn’t say. I ranked him 18 LAST YEAR, I think he easily has upside to be, say top-12 if I had to put a number on it. Of course, that’s best case scenario. And as I mention, he played 81 games in 14-15, so we’re not talking about a guy who hasn’t been able to play a full year recently.

Well, Gasol has been outside the top-40 in per-game in 2 of the last 3 years, and I mention some stats decline in his blurb. I can’t see upside near that range anymore, sadly. Love his game though, wish it weren’t so!

I’d also like to submit a bold submission for top 50 consideration: Zach Lavine. Going into 3rd year, had a big second half, he’s only 21, so tons of room to grow, and Thibs could give him big minutes, Thibs-style. I could see 18/4/4 with 3 3s, 1.5 steals, and above average %s, with only MODEST growth.

@DORIAN: I LOVE Lavine. Lovin’ Lavine! I think I’ll have him in my top 75, but can’t quite go that high, love the boldness though! Also Kris Dunn… Wolves getting more and more stacked with young talent, love what they’ve been able to do

Yes, I was quite surprised that Rubio was the first Minny guard on this list with what Lavine did, but I can’t fault ya.

Meanwhile, Rotoworld and their jock itch for Nikola is truly outta control. I was listening to their latest podcast and their were even talking about reaching for him in 2nd or 3rd rounds!! I may be more inclined to feel that way if Faried wasn’t on the roster, but still.. I’m scared about that Denver team. With Chandler returning, Harris, Gallo and mudiay (and Barton off the bench) getting major touches, how is Nikola gonna feature on this offense? I mean, had this even been considered? There have been SO many incredibly talented players stuck on teams that don’t allow for touches on offense.. I fear this may be an example.

Hm, think Batum should be that low huh? He was, what, mid 30s in yor ranks last year?

@Lasandro: Hmmm wow, I didn’t realize Lavine was getting this kind of love. He’s closer to 75ish for me. Love his game though! Dunn worries me a smidge, plus Lavine doesn’t do a ton besides ThrAGNOF, but I’ll look deeper into it, I don’t have him ranked yet.

Wowwwww, yeah Jock Itch indeed! Hah. That’s way too early. No way you could take him over say Aldridge, even though I KNOW experts wanna feel sexy with their picks.

Man, I love Rubio almost as much as you but after having him on my squad for two straight seasons, it just ain’t happening this time around. Remember that season opener of his last year, and everyone lost their sht thinking that he FINALLY ironed out the kinks in his jumper? Yeah.. turned out to be a season high for him. I think the love for Lavine stems from a) physical ability b) his mentality as an aggressive player and c) Coach Thibbs likely playing him as heavily as he used to with Rose back in the day. But you make a valid point re: Dunn.. hard to forecast which of the two starting guards’ mins he’ll be eating into.

Haha how many people do you think will realistically draft Gorgui over Melo? I sure would, but interested to see what my league will do when we hit that part of the draft.

Regarding Jrue, aren’t you a little concerned as to what a healthy Reke would do to his usage? Those two guys just dont mesh well at all.

@Lasandro: Yeah I’m completely lost on the Jokic love. It isn’t like he’s going to all of a sudden play 30 minutes and I would argue Nurkic (the one who can protect the rim) should be the starting center. They resigned Arthur and they like going small with Gallo at the 4. I’ve got Jokic down for 27 minutes but even that I’m not so sure about.

@Lasandro: I’m not onboard Lavine all that high. In the 2nd half, with 35 min he was at about…

2.4/16.4/2.5/2.8/1.2/0.3 … with low FT volume. We have a name for these types of players. Also the USG significantly dropped when he started. Yeah he’s ok. Top-75? I’m not convinced, I’d have to see the other options.

Lavine – yeah I’m still having trouble even getting him to 75, I’m already in the 60s and he doesn’t feel too close yet.

Jrue – “Healthy” Reke? Healthy?!?!?! When that happenin’??! Haha. Ummm, I think Jrue is gonna take the lion’s share of USG, given he’s kinda the end of a tier of PG upside I think he’s worth a pick around there.

Hahaha wow Wall ” I want you to be an All-Star just as much as I’m an All-Star.” BURN!!!!!!!!

Slim’s got some REL bias on Nurk love. I love him too, but Jokic can do more

@JB Gilpin: Yes… Jokic does more but FG% with very low volume (USG of about 13% in April once Nurk was getting real minutes). FT% is solid and maybe an extra decimal point in steals. But Nurk will destroy him in scoring (April USG of… 34%!) I’d argue Nurk is the better rebounder, he has a much bigger body and is far more active than Jokic. This is also why Jokic got DESTROYED by the US in the gold metal game.

Jokic’s olympics weren’t even that good. .500/.762/0.4/9.1/6.0/2.4/1.5/0.6/1.1 in 22:32, mostly against guys who aren’t even in the NBA. Serbia had to start Raduljica to keep Jokic from being abused by 1st team big men. I like Jokic as a PF next to a high USG center, it lets him not get abused by bigger players and he can play his game which is far more face up than back to the basket.

@JB Gilpin: Nurkic is the type who becomes a 20/10 perennial all-star. Jokic is a glue guy. Nurkic might double Jokic in scoring with only a few extra minutes.

Jokic got hot from outside in the 1st game. Still only 6 boards in 30 minutes. And if you take out that game Jokic’s olympics were pretty bad. I’d comp Nurkic as a Cousins-lite and Jokic as a Boozer-lite. Jokic and Boozers rookie seasons are pretty close. Cousins played a lot more minutes early on but Nurk doubles and triples Cousins block percent. Similar 27 USG which Boozer only hit once or twice in his career. I’m not saying Jokic won’t eventually reach Boozer levels but he isn’t there yet.

@Slim: @Paul: REL bias! Boozer for Jokic, are you KIDDING?!?!?! Come on now. They’re not close at all, Boozer didn’t make 3s, get assists, and played more MPG. Very different players. You called Joke a stretch 4 earlier too!

Let’s hope Faried can just be dealt and I can like em both about the same too

@JB Gilpin: I didn’t actually think you would argue with that. Boozer had a long stretch in his career where he averaged about 3 assists per game. Boozer was over a steal per game for several years. Blocks were 0.9 per 36 as a rookie, 0.8 in his 2nd year and Jokic was 1.0 as a rook and could easily be his career high. Boozer played 25 min per game as a rook, Jokic played about 22. Not much of a difference and Boozer was a year older. I called Jokic a face to the basket guy, I remember Boozer shooting quite a few midrange jumpers. Does Jokic have more range, sure, and Boozer had a higher FG% because he didn’t step out as far and had far superior inside moves. Boozer was .771 FT% as a rook, his career high. Boozer was only 1.8 TO per 36 as a rook and Jokic was 2.2 so there’s that… I hope Jokic can get to Boozers level eventually, and it isn’t lost on me that if Boozer was a Tar Heel he’d be your favorite player ever!

@Ryan: Hah Dragic is 51 🙂 Yeah I still worry how his lack of steals and 3s impact the numbers, but I like him. I’m debating Bosh even in my top 75. It’s just too risky, but I gotta read up a little more.

Haha! Yeah I feel like it’d be awesome to consult some docs on these ranks. Idk what to make of these blood clots and how likely it is that they will reoccur!

All I know is that I’m not going to burn a top-50 pick for someone with such major risk and a ceiling that is probably around 35-40ish. ESPN is cray for putting him at 42! Unless they know something that we don’t???

@JB Gilpin: Yeah I like Dragic in the top 50. Should be the primary alley-ooper to Whiteside and with Wade and Deng gone and I would argue Bosh unlikely to matter I think we see career highs in the counting stats for Dragic.

@JB Gilpin: 20 PPG may be tough but yeah completely doable considering the supporting cast. Basically on par with IT2/3rds but different depending on whether you want more 3s or better FG%. Post ASB Dragic went… .485/.768/1.0/17.3/4.6/6.7/1.0/0.3/2.8 :34 USG jumped 4% and that was with only shooting .286 from 3pt range and a career low .312 for the year. In a punt FT build I think Dragic is far and away better than IT2/3. During that time Wade had a 31 USG, Deng was near 20 after being 16 in the 1st half. Yeah I’m gonna love Dragic in the 4th as a 2nd PG, especially in a punt FT build.

@JB Gilpin: No no no. In a FT punt you CAN NOT lose FG% so everything and I do mean everything has to go to insuring FG%. A 2 or 3 game poor week from a .420 or lower guy and your bonus in FG% gets negated so now your giving away FT% and letting them have a shot at FG%. They don’t deserve it!

@Slim: Well, it kinda depends on your punt guys. If you have Gobert and DeAndre Jordan, then 100% with you, since they have low FG volume. But I was thinking more of the LeBron/Cousins/Drummond punt, IT2/3 volume isn’t gonna cut into that too much

@Slim: There’s too much variation in FG% from week to week. I’m not willing to let them have a shot. I feel like in a punt strategy you don’t just try to win the other cats, you need to dominate them. Esp in the playoffs vs a good all around team.

In a twelve team, yahoo, 13 player standard roster, 9 cat, standard scoring $200 auction keeper league I am definitely keeping KAT for $36, Harden for $66, and Myles Turner for $8 and I traded away $11 DD’s last year.

I can keep 2 more players. I can keep Dieng for $16, Middleton for $20, and Lowry for $38. I’m leaning Dieng and Lowry which would give me $24 for 8 more players. Tough leaving Middleton on the board at $20. Thoughts?

@JB Gilpin: Just curious, what do you think the approximate auction $ value for Lowry will be? He’s a hard one to gauge for me. A few years ago nobody would have ever imagined spending $30+ on him. He’s such a late bloomer. He’s been around forever and it took forever for him to get any respect. I still remember his awful time share situation in Memphis with Conley where he constantly outplayed Conley as a rookie but still came off the bench. Even though he was super good last year, it all feels fluky or temporary to me. He’s only gotter 30+ minutes for 4 of the 10 seasons he’s played. Now he’s the 4th PG off the board before Wall and Lilliard? Is he a $45+ player? Hard for me to wrap my brains around that one.

@Philzilla: Ummmm, yeah $45-$50 sounds about right. Yeah he’s just absolutely taken off, staying healthy has been a big help. I think seeing him grind through 37 MPG, get a huge FT volume, has me think he can take the rigors of the season better then in his injury-plagued early seasons. I’m pretty convinced he’s in that elite range.

@Philzilla: Whewwwwww. Oladipo has the skills, but I know I am behind pace on him. Bledsoe maybe. If Gobert comes out and somehow shoots 70+% FT and gets near-Whiteside numbers, maybe he can get closer to Whiteside?